Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with cancer protein biochemistry.
There is a unique, growth-related family of cell surface hydroquinone or NADH oxidases with protein disulfide-thiol interchange activity referred to as ECTO-NOX proteins (for cell surface NADH oxidases) (Morre, 1998. Plasma Membrane Redox Systems and Their Role in Biological Stress and Disease (Asard, H., Berczi, A. and Caubergs, R. J., Eds) pp. 121-156, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands; Morre and Morre, 2003. Free Radical Res. 37: 795-805). One member of the ECTO-NOX family, designated ENOX2 (for tumor associated) is specific to the surfaces of cancer cells and the sera of cancer patients (Morre et al., 1995. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 92: 1831-1835; Bruno et al., 1992. Biochem. J. 284: 625-628). The presence of the ENOX2 protein has been demonstrated for several human tumor tissues (mammary carcinoma, prostate cancer, neuroblastoma, colon carcinoma and melanoma) (Cho et al., 2002. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 51: 121-129); and serum analysis suggest a much broader association with human cancer (Morre, et al. 1997. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 342: 224-230; Morre and Reust, 1997. J. Bioenerg. Biomemb. 29: 281-289).
ENOX proteins are ectoproteins anchored in the outer leaflet or the plasma membrane (Morre, 1965. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1240: 201-208; FIG. 1). As is characteristic of other examples of ectoproteins (sialyl and galactosyl transferase, dipeptidylamino peptidase IV, etc.), the ENOX proteins are shed. They appear in soluble form in conditioned media of cultured cells (Cho et al., 2002. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 51: 121-129) and in patient sera (Morre, et al., 1997. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 342: 224-230; Morre and Reust, 1997. J. Bioenerg. Biomemb. 29: 281-289). The serum form of ENOX2 from cancer patients exhibits the same degree of drug responsiveness as does the membrane-associated form. Drug-responsive ENOX2 activities are seen in sera of a variety of human cancer patients, including patients with leukemia, lymphomas or solid tumors (prostate, breast, colon, lung, pancreas, ovarian, and liver) (Morre, et al., 1997. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 342: 224-230; Morre and Reust, 1997. J. Bioenerg. Biomemb, 29: 281-289). The extreme stability and protease resistance of the ENOX2 protein (del Castillo-Olivares et al., 1998. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 385: 125-140) may help explain its ability to accumulate in sera of cancer patients to readily detectable levels. In contrast, no drug-responsive NOX activities have been found in the sera of healthy volunteers or in the sera of patients with disorders other than neoplasia (Morre, et al., 1997. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 342: 224-230; Morre and Reust, 1997. J. Bioenerg. Biomemb. 29: 281-289).
While the basis for the cancer specificity of cell surface ENOX2 was not previously determined, the concept was supported by several lines of evidence. Drug responsive ENOX2 activity has been rigorously determined to be absent from plasma membranes of non-transformed human and animal cells and tissues (Morre et al., 1995. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 92: 1831-1835). ENOX2 proteins lack a transmembrane binding domain (Morre, et al., 2001. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 392: 251-256) and are released from the cell surface by brief treatment at low pH (del Castillo-Olivares et al., 1998. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 358: 125-140). A drug-responsive ENOX2 activity has not been detected in sera from healthy volunteers or patients with diseases other than cancer (Morre, et al., 1997. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 342: 224-230; Morre and Reust, 1997. J. Bioenerg. Biomemb. 29: 281-289). Several ENOX2 antisera have identified the immunoreactive band at 34 kDa (the processed molecular weight of one of the cell surface forms of ENOX2) by Western blot analysis or immunoprecipitation when using transformed cells and tissues or sera of cancer patients as antigen source (Cho et al., 2002. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 51: 121-129; Morre, et al., 2001. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 392: 251-256; Chueh et al., 2002. Biochemistry 44: 3732-3741). The immunoreactive band at 34 kDa is absent with Western blot analysis or immunoprecipitation when using transformed cells and tissues or sera from healthy volunteers or patents with disorders other than cancer (Cho et al., 2002. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 51: 121-129; Morre, et al., 2001. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 392: 251-256; Chueh et al., 2002. Biochemistry 44: 3732-374). These antisera include a monoclonal antibody (Cho et al., 2002. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 51: 121-129), single-chain variable region fragment (scFv) which reacts with the cell surface NADH oxidase from normal and neoplastic cells, polyclonal antisera made in response to expressed ENOX2 (Chueh et al., 2002. Biochemistry 44: 3732-374) and polyclonal peptide antisera to the conserved adenine nucleotide binding region of ENOX2 (Chueh et al., 2002. Biochemistry 44:3732-374).
ENOX2 cDNA has been cloned (GenBank Accession No. AF207881: 11; U.S. Patent Publication 2003/0207340 A1). The derived molecular weight from the open reading frame is 70.1 kDa. Functional motifs include a quinone binding site, an adenine nucleotide binding site, and a CXXXXC cysteine pair as a potential protein disulfide-thiol interchange site based on site-directed mutagenesis (Chueh et al., 2002. Biochemistry 44: 3732-374). Based on available genomic information (Bird, 1999. Direct submission of human DNA sequence from clone 875H3 (part of APK1 antigen) to GenBank database at NCBI) the ENOX2 gene is located on chromosome X, and it is comprised of multiple exons (thirteen). It is known that there are a number of splice variant mRNAs and proteins expressed.
The hybridoma cell line that produces the tumor NADH oxidase-specific monoclonal antibody MAB 12.1 was deposited with the American Type Culture Collection., Manassas, Va., 20108 on Apr. 4, 2002, under the terms of the Budapest Treaty. This deposit is identified by Accession No. ATCC PTA-4206. The deposit will be maintained with restriction in the ATCC depository for a period of 30 years from the deposit date, or 5 years after the most recent request, or for the effective life of the patent, whichever is longer, and will be replaced if the deposit becomes non-viable during that period. This monoclonal antibody is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,053,188, issued May 30, 2006, which is incorporated by reference herein.
Because cancer poses a significant threat to human health and because cancer results in significant economic costs, there is a long-felt need in the art for an effective, economical and technically simple system in which to assay for the presence and organ site of cancer.